So last week I was happy because I thought that I was getting better, and then Friday came. I laid down in the afternoon and could hear my lungs rattling. Too bad I leave my stethescope at work because I think it would have been really cool to listen to. Anyways, I knew that wasn’t good and my cough had gotten progressively worse. My mom called that evening and I could hardly talk to her because I couldn’t quit coughing, so she convinced me to go to the Dr. I went to the walk-in clinic and the Dr. said that I had walking pneumonia. . . great! By the time I got home from getting my prescription, I had a fever and body aches all over again. I ended up going into work on Saturday night and had to come back home after four hours because I felt like I was going to pass out in my patients’ rooms; that would not have looked very good. Sunday was a whole new day and 100% better. I’m still coughing quite a bit, but it’s getting better. I just talked to Brad on the phone and he said that he has a cold again. Does this ever end? On a more fun note, Brandon and his new “friend” Jamie came down on Sunday. We went out for lunch at the Olive Garden and had a great time. Jaxson loved playing with Uncle Brandon outside and in the sandbox. On Tuesday, Tanya, Jaxson, and I spent the day in Eldora with Grandma and Wendy. Tanya took this whole week off so we had some nice family time. Jaxson kept them entertained all day with his silliness. We also stopped at Dad and Brenda’s and out at Mom’s on the way home. We had a fabulous and tiring day.

I suppose that it’s only fair that since the boys were both sick, that I get my turn. My turn came on Friday night and I am finally feeling “normal” today. I had a fever, body aches, no energy or appetite, and a nasty cough. I even had to call into work on Saturday night because there was no way I was going to be able to get off the couch. I did make it into work on Sunday night and survived. Now I’m having fun trying to catch up on laundry and housework since I’ve been out of commission for a few days. Before I got sick on Friday night, Dad and Brenda came down to watch Jaxson while we went to the Funnybone with Heath and Tanya. There were two women comedians there that were both very funny. After the show Heath and Tanya came back to our house and hung out for a while. Thanks again to Dad and Brenda for coming and watching Jaxson, we really appreciated that. On Sunday, Brad and Jaxson went up to Andy and Mindy’s to spend some time with their parents before they headed off to Cancun this week. Please pray for their safe travels as Mexico is a pretty scary place to be right now. Today, Jaxson and I went to our first play group session with a new group at our church for stay at home moms. We had a great time watching the kids run wild and play together. Right now I’m watching March Madness and hoping the UNI Panthers can pull off a victory.

Saturday was a busy day for us. I volunteered at the church in the morning, Brad took Jaxson to the Dr. again because he woke up complaining that his ear was hurting, and we had family come to church with us that evening. My mom, Mike, Brandon, and my uncle Randy and aunt Brenda all came to DM to experience Hope with us. Randy and Brenda had never been there before and thought it was great. We’re so glad that they could come with us. After church, we met Heath, Tanya, and the boys in Ankeny for supper at Chili’s. After supper, Brad, Jaxson and I went to their house for some cake and ice cream to celebrate Kade’s 10th birthday. Tanya made him a very yummy cake. . . gotta love birthday cake. After our late night at their house, we got home and Jaxson found a big surprise waiting for him in our living room. Brandon brought his barn and some farm equipment that he played with when he was a little boy. Jaxson has played with it for hours already and has been telling his friends about the “big barn” that “Banon” brought for him. It is so cute because he still says “sank su Banon” (thank you Brandon) at least once a day. On Monday, we were supposed to have VB; however, the net broke, so our plans changed to going over to our neighbor’s, Matt and Ann’s, house to watch Dancing With The Stars and eat pizza. I’ve never watched a season of this show because I’ve found it quite boring, but now that our neighbor, Shawn Johnson, is on there, I have to watch! She did such a great job. I hope she keeps it up and makes it to the final. Instead of having an Olympic block party this year, we’ll have to have a Dancing With The Stars block party. What’s really keeping me busy this week is the remodeling that I’m doing on our main bathroom. If you’ve been to our house before, you’ll remember it as the beach bathroom. It went from a bright blue to a brown. I got done painting it yesterday. Brad and I are hoping to get our new toilet and faucet in tonight. Yeah, we’ll see how that goes and see if we can get by without calling Heath . . . or a marriage counselor. To end with a funny little story about Jaxson. I was in the bathroom painting yesterday and he walks in and says, “Mommy, yuckie toilet.” I said, “Yes Jaxson, we’re getting rid of the yuckie toilet and getting a new one. Are you going to go potty in the new toilet?” Jaxson looks at the ceiling and is thinking hard about his answer, he replies, “Ummm. . . no please.”

This is Jaxson pretty much every morning. He has to watch “Wish Buvie” aka – fish movie, aka Finding Nemo.

We did get some Brady time on Saturday too. Boy, he’s not a happy kid.

Happy Birthday Kade!

Enjoying chips and salsa. . . and milk at Chili’s.

Our new thing is to dance to all of the songs on American Idol.

Playing with all the farm toys.

I found him sneaking into the bars that I made this morning. He was trying to get the “yum yums” aka M&M’s. Don’t worry Brandy, I gave you the pieces that were untouched.

Guilty! Are you wondering why I have TP and Jaxson’s potty seat on my counter? I had to clean out my cupboard in the bathroom to install the new faucet, so they landed up on the counter. Don’t worry the potty seat is unused.

Yesterday was the official start of my garage sale season. YEAH!!! After having Jaxson, I have become a garage sale freak! I have realized that it’s not worth spending the money on brand new things when they use them or play with them for such a short time. Our church had a huge sale this weekend. When I say huge, I mean seven semis full of stuff packed into our church. It started at noon yesterday and we got there at 12:15. Let’s just say that it was insane. I had to park as far out in the parking lot that is possible and it took me ten minutes to go about ten yards once I got inside the church. They even handed you a color-coded map of where things were when you walked in the door. I originally had planned to check out everything, but then my goal was ultimately just to get to the gym where the kids stuff was. I did make it and came out with four pairs of shoes, some clothes, and of course a new train. All for a whopping $3.75. Then today, I went back to volunteer, which was a lot of fun. I couldn’t believe it when I walked in today. All they had left was one room full of stuff and a few large items left. We estimated that 90% of it was gone yesterday. The last $ total that I heard was at 5:00 pm yesterday, they had raised over $20,000. Now the great thing about this is, 100% of the profits go to five local missions in DM. The church is not keeping anything. Praise the Lord for also loving garage sales like I do!

Another weekend has come and gone and boy am I happy because now I am off for two weeks. Our weekend fun started on Friday night when we had our church small group over to our house for supper and a Bible study. Our group has a lot of fun together because we all have so much in common. Three of the couples have little boys,this includes us, one of which is another Jackson. There is another nurse in the group and a medical student. All of the guys love sports and would probably just talk about sports if the women let them. We feel so blessed to have them in our lives and we’ve said from the beginning that God brought all of us together for a reason. On Saturday, Tanya and I went to the big craft show at the Fairgrounds. We had a great time and came home with a lot of goodies. We even got a start on our Christmas shopping. On Sunday, Brad and Jaxson went to Gowrie to spend the day with his parents. Jaxson was so excited, he couldn’t get out of the house fast enough. From what I hear, he had a great time making homemade ice cream and cookies with Papa and Nana.

Jaxson’s feeling how cold the ice cream maker is.

I have no idea what is going on in this picture, but I thought it was hilarious. Your welcome Steve.